Can’t imagine how they will be better next year? Seems like Harden has really gone down hill, so far. Raps did a great job tonite.
KD and Kyrie couldn’t win 1 game
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April 25, 2022 11 Comments
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At least the Lakers can find solace in knowing that another title favorite has collapsed mightily, not that the Lakers should be rewarded for giving us the worst season I have ever witnessed.
I am still grieving over our wasted and lost season in a bitter way, but grief is love with no place to go.
The Nets could not make it to the top with Kyrie. I am not talking about Kyrie the player. This guy has delusions of grandeur. I am even more disappointed with Simmons not showing up at all after the trade. His spot has gone to waste.
As for Harden going downhill, that is very true, and looks like another failure is looming if the Sixers can’t handle the Raptors.
And speaking of going dowhill, I have said it before, Kevin Durant’s body language is not looking good at this moment. He is looking tired, beat up, and completely drained mentally and physically. It is just a matter of time before he can no longer carry a team by himself. The signs are right there in front of our eyes.
KD’s already at that point, not just a matter of time. This is now a problem league-wide: older dudes who were once the marquee names making their teams relevant on their own no longer able to carry that load. But at the same time, they still want all the money and respect that they’d expected when they did change the game.
Now there’s little doubt guys like Lebron, KD, Kyrie, and Harden despite all their flaws will get the maximum allowable salary they can earn. Why? Well, teams would rather be relevant and newsworthy than actually try and jumpstart their rebuilds by bottoming out. They also know that with these guys through a fortuitous chain of events, they might just make some noise, though that’s highly unlikely.
So what’s the answer? Well the “union” could finally vote in to tamp down max deals in favor of the other 430 members, but they seem to lack the backbone to slice up the pie in their favor. The owners could and should create a structure where these old dudes can’t keep taking upwards of 50% of the cap on their own, but I’d expect the “union” to fight tooth and nail on that. It’d be nice to have a revived amnesty clause, but the podunk markets (despite almost universally now having deep-pocketed ownership) will fight hard against that as being seen as too favorable to “big” markets, whatever that means at this point. They could also go out of the box and do some sort of weighted scale, where only some part of the contract counts against the cap but that could get complicated and confusing, but as someone who’s read the CBA, complicated and confusing is par for the course.
I think a big part of the problem is raises often outpace increases in the revenue split on Max deals. Since they’re tied to the cap at initiation, they should be tied to the cap throughout the life of the deal. Raises should never outpace the cap. I’d also like to see the max deals max out at 35% of cap at 12 years in the league. Past that it should go back down to 30%. Contracts shouldn’t be guaranteed at all past age 36. It just does no one any good (other than the player) to get a massive deal at the twilight of their career only to drag down their team and fanbase with them. The league must do something about this or many a team will end up suffering through another iteration of this Westbrook saga.
That said, I wouldn’t get my hopes up. Even though this would make for a better product on the floor, all the owners and players care about is the money split. Beyond that there are some ancillary issues they’ll squabble over, primarily guarantees & soft caps, but that’s something neither side will pay much attention to once the money’s agreed upon. Nothing else much ever changes in these negotiations other than making it tougher to buy your way out of irrelevance becoming more difficult. You’d think they’d want to make a better product for the fans, which they could do with some of these tweaks, but they’re never seriously considered. They seriously couldn’t care less about the fans. It’s just billionaires and millionaires doing what they have to so the sheep still pay their penance.
@Therealhtj
Man, what a fascinating read and charming piece. Probably the most powerful piece by you I have read. I kept shaking my head in agreement with all you are saying that I am struggling to find anything to add to such a magnificent piece. I completely agree with you on everything you said.
The reason I like this blog is because of the passion and knowledge that folks here have in the intricacies of the NBA and the game of basketball in general. Sometimes I even wonder what if they hire someone from this blog as an advisor. That’s how good folks here are.
I am completely blown by your analysis. Too bad the Lakers are not giving us reason to be jubilant continually.
Waitaminit – did we just become best friends?
@Therealhtj
I have been following you, and just about everyone on this blog, since the LA Times blog. So, I am a big fan of constructive criticism and civil discourse which many here provide, including you. So, best friends would fit the bill. Lol!
I love a lot of these ideas, actually. Deferred payments, revisiting the CBA like MLBPU tried to do this last year to increase money for the “middle class” of players are all things the NBA should take a good, hard look at.
Simmons is a joke of an NBA player at this point. Gun shy, focused on himself and not about the team, obviously. The only thing that lingered longer than Simmons back and “mental” issues was Nunn’s bone bruise.
I appreciate that being an NBA player is not all sunshine and butterflies, that there is a lot that goes into it in terms of being a public figure and so on. That, however, is all part of the job. I’ve found Ben’s attitude this year to be demeaning towards people who are actually dealing with mental illness and issues related to stress. I’m not saying he shouldn’t be a human being, but a trade for Philly to Brooklyn either didn’t solve anything at all or the issue wasn’t really as pervasive as he would like everyone to think.
How that all goes down this summer (his arbitration for recouping lost salary from the 76ers) will be interesting. Will the NBA and NBAPU come to some semblance of agreement over this point? it has the potential to all but upend the ability for a team to do anything at all to enforce a signed contract. It’s already nigh impossible for a GM to do his job, all it takes is a couple weeks for a star player to get whiny and ask to be traded while not really showing up for work. It’s a freedom of movement and entitlement that few others on Earth have access to or even expect from the work place.
“The only thing that lingered longer than Simmons’s back and “mental” issues was Nunn’s bone bruise.” That is a very accurate assessment, Jamie.
I am truly worried about the adverse effects that the actions of a few bad apples might have on the potential earnings of future NBA players. I know for a fact that the owners are not going to sit by idly and see certain players stifle them financially while taking advantage of some loopholes.
This is going to start a domino effect. It is going to set a dangerous precedent if it is allowed to be the norm of the day, which will have some serious ramifications because of the actions of a few selfish and ego maniacal stooges. Great comment, Jamie.
Remember when people were all hell bent on crowning the Nets as the team to beat, upend your roster to prep for and generally running around worried about three players who played less then half a season total together? Yeah, me too. Why? I still can’t fathom. One team seemingly worried the NBA landscape so much the Lakers broke up their roster twice, fans from coast to coast wrung their hands in fear and worry and all for what? A trade of two joke players, a vaccine drama akin to a Spanish novella and a first round sweep.
The Nets are the team of the future? Give me a break. The other team with overblown expectations and an underwhelming roster besides our own.
It’s nearly impossible to build a 3 star super team with the massive salaries. The only way to really do it is by drafting at least 2 of the 3 and bringing on the 3rd before the other two get huge max deals. I wonder if anyone will even try again after the Nets and Lakers implosion this year.
Draft/Bird Rights or player pay cuts. Not a lot of that happening these days…